When in Florence...

Ponte Vecchio
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Arrived in Florence in one piece and made it to my apartment. My big accomplishment of my first day was managing to turn on a light in my apartment that took me another 3 days to figure out how to turn it off. I'd like to blame it on jet lag and a confusing light switch...but I'd admit that's questionable. My "shower" is about 4 1/2 feet tall and has two degrees - scalding hot or chilly - so I'm sure my neighbors already can tell when I'm showering by the grunts and groans while contorting and then the shrieks when the water hits me. I'm totally going to make good friends with my neighbors, I can feel it. ;-) But otherwise, the apartment is really nice and only a short 10 minute walk to class on the Piazza Della Republica.

View of the Duomo.
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As for classes, they started this week. There are about 7 of us in my class. One or two of them have taken a little Italian before, but luckily the rest are as clueless as I am. And there is this German guy that - and I mean this is the nicest way possible - is even worse then I am. And everytime he goofs up he shouts out "my god" or "scheizer" or some other german curse word, and I start cracking up so badly that I can't even do my turn. I tried once to disguise my laughing with a very lady-like gentle cough - but it came out a horrible hicccup thing and don't think it fooled anyone. So in a nutshell, my Italian is going along spendidly...I am confident that in just a week or two more, I will be able to ask where the bathroom is.